SEWARD, Neb. – After helping lead the Concordia University Men’s Basketball team to a share of the GPAC regular season title, Gage Smith has been recognized as the GPAC/Hauff Mid-America Sports Men’s Basketball Player of the Week, as announced by the league on Tuesday (Feb. 22). Smith is the third Bulldog to garner a GPAC Player of the Week honor this season, joining Carter Kent (Dec. 7) and Justin Wiersema (Nov. 23).
A native of Elizabeth, Colo., Smith enjoyed a monster night as part of the dramatic 74-73 win over No. 22 Briar Cliff on Feb. 16. In that victory, Smith totaled 23 points and 17 rebounds while making 9-of-12 shots from the floor. He then notched 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the 86-70 victory at Dakota Wesleyan that closed the regular season on Feb. 19. For the week, he averaged 18.0 points and 13.0 rebounds per game and made 13-of-19 shots from the floor. Gage’s younger brother Tristan found the spotlight after making the game-winning layup at the buzzer versus Briar Cliff.
Named Second Team All-GPAC in 2020-21, Gage Smith is averaging 13.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 55.1 percent from the floor. In his career as a Bulldog, Smith has accumulated 873 points, 581 rebounds, 134 assists and 81 steals. He ranks 13th on the program’s all-time rebound list.
Concordia (22-6, 15-5 GPAC) is getting set to host Morningside (14-11, 11-9 GPAC) at 7 p.m. CT on Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the GPAC tournament.